Prior to Anarchy's launch, both male and female perception of Axe were around the same level. After launch, the positive perception of each brand increased, but the male perception quickly went back to their original levels, whereas the female perception continued to rise.

The data is measured on a scale of -100 to 100, in which negative impressions are subtracted from positive impressions. Zero is a neutral impression. YouGov BrandIndex extracts the data from a continuously gathered online survey.

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Since last year, women's opinion of Axe has been higher than men's. Currently, it's 20 points more than that of males.

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Women now have a more positive impression of the Axe body spray brand than men do, according to YouGov BrandIndex.The uptick in perception is completely counterintuitive, because if there's one thing everyone knows about Axe it's that teenage boys use too much of it and no one else wants to smell like them.Axe's change in fortunes came after Unilever launched Anarchy, a product that caters to both men and women, at the end of January. The campaign for Anarchy â€” â€œUnleash the Chaosâ€ by BBH London â€” shows the attractions that are unleashed when both sexes wear Axe.Even more surprisingly YouGovâ€™s data show that women have liked the Axe brand more than men for years, despite the brand having solely focused on men in the past. This, despite the fact that many of their ads feature barely clothed women cat-fighting as they run for the attention of one man.